STE: The Sound of Friendship
by ZenosParadox
Summary: RS, Tu. Hoshi loses her hearing. Limited dialogue. Friendship.


Title: The Sound of Friendship  
  
Author: ZenosParadox  
  
Category: Friendship  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Summary: RS, Tu. Hoshi loses her hearing.  
  
Disclaimer: The characters belong to Paramount. This fiction was written solely for personal enjoyment.  
  
THE SOUND OF FRIENDSHIP  
  
She could see the color blue. It filled her retina with its brilliance, yet she heard no sound and could not feel her body. She would panic if only she had been capable of an emotional response, but even that was beyond her efforts. She could close her eyes, though.  
  
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She could see the color blue, but this time the color was associated with a form she could recognize: eyes. Blue, intense eyes, looking deeply into her own. Her own eyes scanned the face above her, the dark hair, the furrowed forehead. She moved her tongue and lips but could hear no words, no sounds as she expected. She saw his mouth move but only knew he was saying her name because she could read his lips.   
  
Hoshi, he said. She tried to remember the last time he had called her Ensign. She began shaking her head and put her hands over her ears. The look on his face turned to shock. She felt herself drawn into his arms, feeling her body shake, not able to hear her own sobs.  
  
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She lay on the bed in sickbay, listlessly scanning the room. The doctor could detect nothing wrong with her, just fatigue. She saw Dr. Phlox speaking with Captain Archer, shaking his head. She saw T'Pol standing passively beside Archer, her eyebrow raised as if in disbelief. She saw the look of pity that Trip tried to hide by immediately turning his face away.   
  
They had all come to see how she was doing, all with that horrible look in their eyes. They were too far away for her to read their lips now, but she could imagine what they were saying.  
  
She was through with crying, though. She wanted to leave, but knew she was still too weak to do so without help. Yet, none of them felt comfortable approaching her again because they knew they could not hide the pity.  
  
She wanted to be left alone in her misery; she wanted no one to see her like this. She suddenly understood why a certain Armory Officer often refused help after he had been injured, preferring to lick his wounds in private. The silence isolated her so much! But isolation was nothing new to her. She made a firm decision. She was finished with crying.  
  
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He walked in and simply held out his hand, not trying to say any words as all the others had. She looked in his blue eyes, ready to strike him if she saw pity, but his eyes only revealed uncertainty. Why uncertainty? He seemed afraid that she would refuse his offer of assistance.  
  
She took his hand and leaned on his shoulder, seeing the relief in his eyes. She was grateful that he was not shuttering his emotions as he was wont to do.   
  
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She motioned to him to sit and he did so. He looked at her expectantly. He wanted to know what he could do for her, she saw. Then she noticed his attention turn to the comm unit. He looked back at her and she nodded her assent. He got up and she saw him turn his face to her as he responded to the comm unit.   
  
Yes, she is here and I will stay with her to make sure she rests, she read from his lips. Send the next message to her computer terminal in her quarters so she can read it, he said further.   
  
She saw him disconnect the comm link with an irritated stab. She motioned him back to her side. The walk to her quarters had tired her. She leaned against his shoulder and closed her eyes.  
  
He waited until she was deeply asleep and gently laid her in bed. He put a blanket over her and moved her hair from her face with his hand.   
  
She did not hear him sigh deeply. He spoke knowing she wouldn't hear his confession. He was just grateful to have found her alive and felt guilty at what his delaying had cost her. Would she understand he felt responsible because he had failed to protect her? But he had a worse sin to plague him. He feared he had bargained away her special gift with his constant prayer of "Just let me find her alive."  
  
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She woke up to silence alone in her room. She sat for a moment, trying to remember the sound of the engine. She was trying not to think of the future, of being a Communications Officer who could not hear. She could accomplish a lot of tasks through visual processing of data streams, but without the ability to handle auditory input, she would be greatly hampered. She would not be worthy of the bridge station or of the Enterprise.  
  
She then stretched out on the floor, putting her ear against the cold panel. She thought she could sense vibrations through the bones of her skull. Vibrations, patterns--she yearned for so much more! She grabbed her blanket and remained there.  
  
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She felt the shake on her shoulders and his strong arms helping her sit up. She opened her eyes to find the blue ones staring into hers, a spark of elation in them. She was confused. How could he be so happy about her condition?  
  
Then he took her chin gently and directed her gaze to her computer screen. She looked back at him in disbelief. He helped her get up to read the message at closer range.  
  
Dr. Phlox had been able to locate damage to fibers from the medial geniculate nucleus of the thalamus, a brain structure that essentially served as a sensory relay. The cut was almost undetectable until he had adjusted his medical scanners appropriately. With an injection of nerve growth factors to accelerate the regeneration of the severed axons that was normally inhibited in the central nervous system, the likelihood of recovery was good.   
  
-------  
  
"Well, Ensign, it appears that your hearing is back to normal, or as in your case, supranormal. All the parameters I have evaluated conform to your pre-morbid state," said Dr. Phlox with a smile.   
  
Hoshi looked at him with gratitude. The injection of nerve growth factors had taken three days to repair the problem and Dr. Phlox had insisted on her wearing earplugs to make sure nothing interfered with the recovery. She loved hearing the cadence of the Doctor's voice and the way his tone would end in a cheery note.   
  
Hoshi went to her quarters to get ready for her first day-afternoon, rather, back on the bridge. The door to her quarters chimed to reveal two impatient visitors, one tall, blonde and gregarious while the other was compact, dark haired and intense. The one thing both men had in common was the smile as they greeted her.  
  
"Well, darlin', are you good as new?" Trip asked.   
  
"Say something else," Hoshi prompted.  
  
"Hm, let's see. I've got my heart set on sharing some pecan pie with you at lunch if Malcolm here will let me go. He's got me working like a dog consolidating some of those weapons of his with Engineering. He keeps forgetting I outrank him. Guess we'll have to drag his sorry ass along with us to lunch, come to think of it."  
  
"Really, Commander, I am not the one to blame for our current dilemma. You're the one who insisted that we could shunt more of the overload to polarize the hull plating, remember? Now if we had done it my way, we would have completed the project a day ago," said Malcolm, never one to back off from a good argument with Trip.  
  
"Now, don't be pissing on my back and tell me that it's raining," said Trip immediately. "If we had done it your way, you'd a had more power to your little toys at the expense of my engines."  
  
"Hoshi, I apologize for my colleague. Trip has obviously been deprived of his pecan pie far too long. I promise to quit arguing with him if you join us for lunch," said Malcolm, with Trip nodding his head in assent, ever agreeable to anything that would get him to his favorite dessert quicker.  
  
Hoshi smiled as she put her hands on each man's shoulder, delighting in being able to hear both of their accents. This was just what she needed.   
  
"You know, boys," Hoshi began as they walked along, making them both look at each other with raised eyebrows, silently mouthing the word 'Boys.'   
  
Hoshi continued, "I think I'm enjoying hearing you argue for a change. Please, by all means, continue."  
  
"Well, as I was saying, this weapons jockey here--"  
  
"Jockey? Are you now casting aspersions on my height? Really..."  
  
*****  
  
Author Notes:  
  
Written in part in response to the challenge at LD of Hoshi losing her hearing. 3 pages. Written May, 2002 and posted at LD.  
  
No reviews are necessary. Thanks for taking the time to read. 


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